CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Bernie Kosar is one of the Browns' most beloved former players. This is because he manipulated the NFL to come here, cherished his time as the Browns' quarterback, and always shot as straight as he dared, given his role as the team leader.

Now he's taken the gloves off for exhibition season.

Was he a trifle over the top and too personal with his comments in the exhibition opener in his criticism of the St. Louis Rams' receivers? By the Milquetoast standards of NFL broadcasts and the God-ing up of players by ESPN, yeah, he was.

Was the Browns' analyst wrong? Of course not. St. Louis' receivers have been lousy since Mike Martz left. I'll take that any day instead of the nameless, faceless cheerleaders that call games for the home team.

Thursday night, play-by-play man Jim Donovan seemed to be trying to rein in Kosar. Later, team president Joe Banner reprimanded Kosar for his remarks.

Kosar came into the league speaking his mind, ripping the Browns' offense in a narrow, come-from-ahead playoff loss to Miami in his rookie season. That led to the broadening of the passing game under offensive coordinator Lindy Infante in time for the Cinderella heartbreak season of 1986. One of the signature victories that year was at Cincinnati. Kosar wanted to be aggressive from the start.

"The winner would take the division. Everybody always had scripted plays to begin the games. They were always so conservative. Get a feel for the game. Don't make mistakes. I wanted to come out firing. Infante and I almost came to blows in the locker room. I hadn't played that many big games yet, so I wanted to show everybody on the team I was ready to go."

"If you're a big, slow quarterback, you have to have other things," he continued. "I had the thing Patton said about Napoleon in the movie -- audacity, always audacity. I figured if we hit (the deep pass), it would send a big message that we were going to kick their butts. If we missed, it still meant we weren't afraid. I hit (Reggie) Langhorne deep and he got right to the goal-line."

So if you hire Kosar, you also hire a first-rate football mind, a loose tongue and what I consider refreshing candor.

"Candidly" is one of embattled Browns' owner Jimmy Haslam's favorite words. The adverb obviously does not apply to the broadcast booth under the new regime, though -- even when the barbs are directed at the other team.

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